Improvement of Scintillation Detection System using Plasmonic Aluminum Photocathode

A large category of nuclear radiation detection systems are based on scintillation detectors. One of the most important and effective subsystems in performance of scintillation detectors is photomultiplier tube. The photomultiplier tubes with plasmonic photocathodes have higher efficiency and lower dead time compared to the regular tubes. In this research, in order to improve the efficiency and optical response of the photocathode, the plasmonic phenomenon has been used and a new photocathode has been designed and simulated. By periodic circular nanocavities on the surface of aluminum metal, a structure is presented that by making it possible to pair the incoming light to an electron density wave on the surface, plasmonic intensification is created in the desired wavelength range and the field intensity increases greatly. In this way, the quantum efficiency of the photocathode is improved and the detection efficiency is increased up to 15 times compared to the previous cases.